Blogito ergo sum! Actually, as N.T. Wright averred, "'Amor, ergo sum:' I am loved, therefore I am." Among other things, I am a Roman Catholic deacon. This is a public cyberspace in which I seek to foster Christian discipleship in the late modern milieu in the diakonia of koinonia and in the recognition that "the Eucharist is the only place of resistance to annihilation of the human subject."

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

O Emmanuel for whom we wait in joyful expectation

With this final installment, I don't mind saying that I am ready for the O Antiphons to take a year long hiatus!

UPDATE:Next year's preparations for the Nativity of the Lord here on Καθολικός διάκονος will have a distinctively and unapologetic Eastern flavor. I am convinced that until a penitential dimension of this sacred time is recovered in the Western tradition it will continue to seem to me more than a bit faux and forced. I was greatly impressed with the beginning of Peter Hitchens' Advent Message that appeared on his Mail on Sunday blog:

"I shall not be posting - apart from my Mail on Sunday column - until some days after the Feast of the Nativity (commonly called Christmas Day). In fact I doubt if I shall be posting until after the Holy Innocents’ Day, on which I hope as many of you as possible will recall with sorrow the continuing massacre of innocent unborn babies, our society’s greatest and deepest shame, and the one of which it most hates to be reminded.

"As it’s not yet Christmas, but still the penitential season of Advent, I’ll save any Christmas greetings for when the twelve days have actually begun."

As I often do, I thank Mr. Hitchens for his concise lucidity. For those who are new readers and unversed in the glorious liturgical feasts we celebrate during the first week of the Christmas season, stay tuned.

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About Me

I am husband and Dad to six lovely children. I am also a Roman Catholic deacon of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. I married in 1993, became a Dad for the first time in 1994 and most recently in 2011 (quite a spread). I was was ordained in 2004. After serving as a deacon for 11 years at The Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City (8 years before I was ordained for a total of 19 years), I am now assigned to St Olaf's Parish in Bountiful, Utah. I am a graduate of the University of Utah and the Institute in Pastoral Ministry at St. Mary's University of Minnesota. I am currently a candidate for a Doctorate in Ministry (D.Min) at Mount Angel Seminary, Oregon.

Madeleine Delbrêl

"We fashion the immortal being we are through our choices. Through our choices we bring the man in us to the fullness of life or to the worst of human suffering. At the hour of his death each human being has become either a person who will live with God forever, or who will be without God forever" Madeleine Delbrêl

St. Paul

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom. 12:1-2)

Two men I greatly admire

BXVI w/ Abp Rowan

C.S. Lewis

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one'” Lewis